Lt. Gov. Darr Reports Campaign Errors To Ethics Panel

Friday

Aug 23, 2013 at 5:26 AMAug 23, 2013 at 6:36 AM

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Lt. Gov. Mark Darr filed an ethics complaint against himself on Friday over hundreds of dollars his campaign spent at gas stations and restaurants shortly after he took office that were classified as fundraising expenses.

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Lt. Gov. Mark Darr filed an ethics complaint against himself on Friday over hundreds of dollars his campaign spent at gas stations and restaurants shortly after he took office that were classified as fundraising expenses.

Meanwhile, the lawyer who first questioned the spending said he’s also filed a complaint with the panel over the reports.

Darr, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the 4th District congressional seat, reported the errors days after a website raised questions about the expenses that didn’t appear to be related to raising money to pay off the loan he made for his successful 2010 bid for the lieutenant governor’s office. Darr said he was filing amended reports and was prepared to accept any penalties from the ethics panel.

“As this was my first race for public office, the ins and outs of campaign finance reporting were new to both me and my campaign staff,” Darr said in a prepared statement. “As such, there were some mistakes made, and I am working hard to correct each and every one of them.”

Darr filed the complaint days after the Blue Hog Report, a Democrat-leaning blog, detailed hundreds of dollars Darr reported spending in campaign funds. It included $1,500 spent on Arkansas Razorbacks football tickets.

Darr said in the complaint that he was amending the reports to “ensure that any expenditures made by the campaign that were not specific to fundraising activities are reclassified as debt reduction payments.” Darr said the reports would correct the amount of money his campaign owed him.

A spokesman for Darr said he didn’t know yet how much would have to be reclassified or whether Darr would have to repay his campaign for any of the expenditures. Spokesman Chase Dugger said the amended reports would be filed by early next week.

The state Ethics Commission doesn’t comment on pending cases, and Director Graham Sloan said he couldn’t confirm or deny whether Darr had filed a complaint with the panel. Sloan said Dugger had called him earlier this week about amendments he planned to make to his campaign finance reports.

Matt Campbell, an attorney who runs the Blue Hog site, said he filed a complaint against Darr late Friday in which he cites dozens of expenses Darr reported after taking office and other potential ethics violations.

“This is not an instance where a candidate realized his own mistakes and attempted to correct them, and Mr. Darr should not be given a chance to ‘fix’ these problems at this late date merely by filing amended (reports), when he demonstrated no interest in fixing them prior to other people having found out about them,” Campbell wrote in the complaint.

Sloan said that items listed as fundraising expenses must be “reasonably and legitimately related” to the fundraising activity.

Darr also reported that he should have used $27,489 in campaign funds he had left over from his 2010 campaign to pay off the loan he had made to it. He said his campaign owed him more than $120,000 after his 2010 bid, not the $115,766 that he initially reported. Darr reported last month that his campaign still owed him more than $18,000 he’d loaned it during his lieutenant governor’s bid.

Darr isn’t the first elected official to file an ethics complaint against himself. Republican State Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson signed a settlement with the Ethics Commission in December after saying his campaign didn’t report $2,700 that it paid to his then-girlfriend, Julie McGee. She alleged that Hutchinson paid her with the campaign funds, while Hutchinson maintained that his signature had been forged.

Hutchinson drew a $500 fine and a warning letter.

Darr’s report follows Tuesday’s resignation of a Democratic state senator who stepped down after the commission said he misused campaign funds. Paul Bookout, D-Jonesboro, left the Senate seat he’d held since 2006 after the Ethics Commission reprimanded him and fined him $8,000 last week.

The commission said Bookout spent thousands of dollars in campaign funds on clothing, home theater equipment and other personal items. A special prosecutor has been named to look into the case and decide whether Bookout should face charges.

Darr announced last week he was running for the 4th Congressional District seat held by Rep. Tom Cotton, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor next year. State House Majority Leader Bruce Westerman and Hot Springs businessman Tommy Moll are also seeking the GOP nomination. Janis Percefull, a community college teacher from Hot Springs, is the only announced Democratic candidate.

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